Bethenny Frankel Admits to Open Relationship With Husband

Reality television star Bethenny Frankel, who is gearing up to host her own talk show, recently revealed that she has an open relationship with husband Jason Hoppy.

(Photo: Reuters: Chip East)

Author and editor Anna David, who put together a compilation of essays about reality TV by well known writers, readily admits her obsession with Bethenny Frankel and the other Real Housewives of New York, which was stoked by following their Twitter feeds.

(Photo: Reuters: Chip East)

Author and editor Anna David, who put together a compilation of essays about reality TV by well known writers, readily admits her obsession with Bethenny Frankel and the other Real Housewives of New York, which was stoked by following their Twitter feeds.

In Tuesday's episode of her FOX daytime talk show "Bethenny," the host posed the question, "Would you give your girlfriend a free pass?" While comedian Finesse Mitchell thought the question was a trap, Frankel had no problem speaking about the open relationship shared between she and her husband.

Frankel told her live studio audience that she would allow her husband to be with another woman.

"It used to be Angelina Jolie and now she's the one if he were allowed to have a night," Frankel said. "But, I wonder would he go all the way? Would he really do it? I think I would have to allow him."

The new talk show host admitted that if given the opportunity, she would spend time with "Friday Night Lights" actor Taylor Kitsch, which her husband would consent to.

"I'm like a deer that just lost its footing. I love him," Frankel told her audience. "He's everything. And if he would have me, I'm allowed."

The former "Real Housewives of New York City" star insisted that although she was in love with her husband, the pair had a free pass to venture outside of their relationship.

"I'm allowed to have a free pass," Frankel said. "I love my husband, but we're like also soulmates."

Although Frankel has been married to Hoppy for a year, her mother, Bernadette Birk, has been vocal about existing issues in the relationship that she believes will lead to divorce.

Despite Frankel's claims that her marriage works while giving her husband a hall pass, CNN columnist and author of Prince Harming Syndrome, Karen Salmansohn, called open marriages nothing more than an excuse.

"By the end of my research, I firmly believed that open marriage is merely an excuse for getting away with behaving self-indulgently and recklessly," Salmansohn wrote in a previous column that appeared on CNN.

Salmansohn's claims seem to be in line with statistical studies that show open marriages have a 92 percent failure rate, according to the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Salmansohn has said she is sure that an open marriage cannot work.

"Open marriage is pretty much the opposite of marriage. It seems to be about avoiding commitment -- one of the cornerstones of a happy marriage," Salmansohn said. "You may be able to agree on the 'rules for cheating' in an intellectual way, but doesn't the emotional nature of love always get in the way?"